Talking points: If the Astros could just shorten games, they’d be in business. Sort of.

The Astros have come about the worst record in baseball honestly, no doubt.

They’re 15th in the National League in earned run average, ninth in runs scored, 15th in fielding (be it by the measure defensive efficiency, or errors). Plain and simple, there are precious few ways in which the Astros rise to level of average, let alone good.

They could have chased – not necessarily caught, but chased — .500 if everything had gone right. Everything didn’t go right, though Astros fans can’t much complain about the performances of Hunter Pence, Wandy Rodriguez, Bud Norris, Michael Bourn, Brett Wallace, Mark Melancon and Matt Downs. And Clint Barmes has shored up the infield defense far more than the fans carping at his .212 batting average seem to realize.

The biggest wrong with the 2011 Astros reared its ugly head on Opening Day, when Brandon Lyon had a black-cloud-over-his-head aura as he was blowing a save opportunity. It’s way too long a season to draw any conclusions about a team from one game, but in this case the Astros set a tone that has had their fans’ ears ringing all season.

If games ended after five innings, the Astros would be 28-31-11. The Astros’ record falls to 26-34-10 after six innings, 26-39-5 after seven, 21-43 after eight. What does this mean, other than some of us – ahem – would be well-advised to find better uses for their time?

It means the Astros let game after game slip away in the middle innings.

No, the Astros’ starting rotation hasn’t covered itself in glory with a collective 4.59 ERA that ranks 15th out of 16 NL teams. Astros relievers also rank 15th in the NL, but it’s a much worse 15th. The Astros’ bullpen ERA of 4.71 is 1.19 worse than the league average. Astros starters, for their part, are 0.65 worse than the league norm.

And it’s actually worse than that for the bullpen.

Astros relievers have allowed the highest percentage of inherited runners to score – 42 percent, well over the league average of 31. That makes the starters’ numbers look worse than they should, lets games get out of hand in the middle and late innings and probably causes tooth decay and an array of other forms of male dysfunction. The Astros’ save conversation rate is 42 percent – dead last, again, and well below the league norm of 67 percent.

Clearly, the decision to build the bullpen around Brandon Lyon (11.48 ERA in 15 appearances) worked out about as well as tweeting way-to-explicit photos did for Anthony Weiner. Lyon makes more money ($5.25 million) than the rest of the Astros relievers combined, and his attempts to pitch through injuries that likely will lead to an usual biceps tendon operation have been disastrous for him and the team. Hey, injuries a fact of life with pitchers, but Astros manager Brad Mills seemed awfully eager to give Lyon a puzzling amount of leeway.

Yes, Lyon converted 20 of 22 save opportunities last season. Yes, he is, at 31, a veteran. On the other hand, Lyon didn’t come into the season with a Jon Papelbon – let alone Mariano Rivera – body of work that made it incumbent on the Astros to give him every last benefit of the doubt. When healthy, Lyon is a perfectly capable reliever. His ERA+ — adjusted for era and ballparks, with 100 being average, the higher the number the best — entering the season was 112. That put Lyon in the company of relievers Mike DeJean, Chuck McElroy, Norm Charlton, Mike Myers and Dan Wheeler. Checking in with career ERA+ plus totals of 113 are the likes of John Frascatore, Jeremy Accardo, Antonio Osuna and Hector Carrasco.

Lyon, of course, shared closer duties in 2010 with Matt Lindstrom. After the season, Astros general manager Ed Wade sent Lindstrom to the Colorado Rockies in a deal that admittedly was a salary dump. Lindstrom has put up a 2.93 ERA in 27 2/3 innings for the Rockies. Let’s not go the cheap second-guess route on performance; Lindstrom struggled last season, allowed Lyon to emerge as the go-to guy at the end of games. Both are 31, so it’s not as if the Astros dumped a guy likely to be part of their foundation in 2015.

At the same time, Lindstrom wasn’t nearly the salary dump Lyon could have been. If Wade had been ready, willing and able to flip Lyon’s salary ($10.75 through 2012) instead of the $2.8 million that Lindstrom gets this year and $3.6 million in 2011, there would have been some money to cobble together a better bullpen. The and able is no small part of the equation, because most teams want an awful lot of bang for the buck out of $5 million reliever.

In any case, the bullpen is one area that a team truly can build on the cheap if spends wisely. Look at the Tampa Bay Rays, who have a 3.37 bullpen ERA despite having lost 2010 stalwarts Rafael Soriano (45 saves, 1.73 ERA), Joaquin Benoit (1.34 ERA). The Rays signed Kyle Farnsworth for $2.6 million and he has delivered 14 saves and a 1.78 ERA. They snagged Joel Peralta (3.51) for $925,000, Juan Cruz (3.12) for $850,000.

Or look at the San Diego Padres, who have an NL-best 2.49 bullpen ERA. Yes, having $7.5 million closer Heath Bell is a great way to start a bullpen. At the same time, the Padres have gotten gotten an awfully cost-effective support system with Mike Adams ($2.54 million), free-agent signee Chad Qualls ($1.5 million), waiver claim Pat Neshek ($625,000) and sub-$500K relievers Luke Gregerson, Cory Luebke and Ernesto Frieri.

The Astros have a few bullpen bargains. Melancon (4-1, six saves, 1.62 ERA in 33 1/3 innings) and Wilton Lopez (2.25 ERA in 28 innings) make less than $450K apiece. The Astros just don’t have nearly enough of those bargains, causing them to let game after game slip away in the middle and late innings. It’s not costing them a playoff spot, because that clearly wasn’t going to happen, but it has made the season considerably more unpleasant than it had to be.